


Andromeda

by Elenduen



Series: From the Ashes [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Androids, Death and Rebirth, Extremis, Gen, Hand wavy science, Hurt Tony, New Life Form, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Tony centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 16:11:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18502432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenduen/pseuds/Elenduen
Summary: Tony dies in the cold of Siberia. Part of Tony is reborn in a drastic attempt to save his life gone wrong. The life Tony once had is now over, a whole new life is ahead, and Tony must learn how to function as the worlds first human/android hybrid as well as adjusting to being a different gender.





	Andromeda

Pain was the last thing that Tony remembered before he slipped into what seemed to be an unending darkness. 

He had not expected to wake up again, had fully expected to die, trapped in his malfunctioning suit in the frozen wasteland in Siberia. But once again life threw him a curve ball and he found himself waking up to a brilliant bright white light. 

For a second Tony thought that he’d been wrong and there really was something after death, and that maybe he’d be reunited with his Mother and Jarvis and Ana, certainly not Howard, there was only one place a man liked him would go and it wasn’t the good place. Then, as a blinding, agonising pain hit him, Tony knew that it wasn’t heaven he was entering, he knew it was hell, and he was burning!

There was heat, immense and agonising heat, that was searing into every inch of his body. Tony couldn’t see flames, but he could feel the fire, feel himself burning, his flesh melting, the blood boiling into a sticky stain on his bones, his organs liquifying inside what was left of his body, even his bones were burning! 

Tony was screaming, at least he thought he was, but he wasn’t sure if he could anymore, if he had enough of a body left to scream with. He should be dead, he had to be dead, this has to be hell, he must have died in Siberia and gone to hell. He could hear the sound of voices outside of his super heated torture chamber, he couldn’t hear what was being said, he guessed it was more tortured and damned souls undergoing their own punishments. 

They certainly didn’t sound happy, they sounded scared. Well, Tony could understand that, if this was his first day in hell he hated to think what would come next. 

At some point he must have blacked out because the next thing he knew he was back to staring at a white light and the pain was gone. 

“There’s something happening!”

“Is he waking up?”

“I don’t know, but something is happening in the cradle.”

Cradle. Helen Cho’s cradle? Well that would make sense, if he’d been as injured as he thought he had then Tony would have needed all the help he could get to survive. Obviously, it had worked, he felt… strong, there was no pain anywhere, not even the usual aches in his joints from the start of arthritis. Or the constant phantom pain in the centre of his chest that had never left him even after the removal of the arc reactor. He honestly felt better than he had in years. 

The bright cocoon he was in shifted and the light dimmed as the outside world came back into view. 

“Tony?” that was Pepper’s voice, oh, she sounded so frightened that it made Tony ache to hear it. 

“I’m okay.” He said and paused, that didn’t sound like him, that wasn’t his voice. It was too high pitched, too smooth, there was no gravelly sounding drawl in the timber of the speech, the only thing that sounded right was the accent, but everything else was wrong. 

Clearing his throat Tony slowly began to move, to sit up, surprised when nobody moved to stop him, although he heard collective gasps around him and looked up to see Helen Cho, Vision, and Pepper standing before him, eyes wide and mouths dropped open. 

“What?” he demanded, his voice still sounding wrong, what was up with that? 

“Tony…” Vision began, making an abortive step towards Tony, but as he did so the reflective surface of the lab’s blacked out windows came into Tony’s view and he froze. 

That was not him. That was not Tony Stark sitting on the side of the cradle. That was not even a man! That was… he was… 

Body tense with fear, Tony looked down at himself and let out a cry as this new female body was revealed. “No!” he whispered, shaking his head as he stared at his hands, but they weren’t his hands, they were too small, too pale, to undamaged to be his hands.

“How did this happen?” Pepper whispered, 

“I don’t know,” Helen said, “The Extremis melted the suit and mingled with it, the two merged to create a mutated version of the virus that merged with the cradle, his body was rebuilt from the nano-tech, the suit, and his remaining DNA.”

“Yes, His! But he.. she…” Pepper broke off unable to articulate what she was thinking or feeling. 

“Mitochondrial DNA.” This came from Vision, who was watching Tony closely as he/she examined his/herself, getting to his/her feet and crossing the lab to look in the reflective surface and see the new form. 

Whoa! The first thing that struck Tony were the eyes. Those were nothing like his brown eyes, these were a cold, almost shimmering silver/blue. That was a huge change. Well, okay, maybe not as huge as the whole gender thing, but hey, who could blame Tony for focusing on the smaller aspects first, and speaking of small, damn was he short, or she was short, fuck! Tony needed to learn a whole new set of pronouns. 

“What do you mean, Viz?” Tony heard Pepper saying, 

“Mitochondrial DNA is the strongest DNA, the most resilient. It is the DNA that has been successfully retrieved from ancient Egyptian Mummies. It is the DNA passed from Mother to child, “Female DNA” some laymen have termed it though that is not truly accurate, but I suspect and hypothesize that the Mitochondrial was all that was left for the cradle to salvage.” 

“Makes sense.” Tony commented, startling them all. He/She raised his/her hands to stroke the smooth skin of a feminine face. It was pretty, beautiful in fact, high cheek bones, clear skin, pouty lips. The kind of face that would have attracted his attention back when he was a he! 

Looking down Tony took in the breasts, slender waist and curved hips. It all looked good, he was no expert, but he thought it looked good. The breasts were a good size, and so was the ass, the height was rather disagreeable but hey, Tony had never been tall. 

“We need to run tests.” Helen stammered, “The readings were going crazy before you… woke up, we need to see what has changed… I mean, beyond the obvious.”

“Uh huh.” Tony murmured, running his/her hands through the long black curls, the hair is soft and bouncy, pleasant to the touch, and it frames his/her face perfectly. 

Her, she, hers’. Those were the pronouns now, not his/him. 

“You need clothes.” Pepper said, averting her gaze as Tony turns, giving them all a full frontal view. “A whole new wardrobe, and we need to figure out how we’re going to handle this publicly.”

“I guess so.” Tony murmured, accepting the lab coat that Vision chivalrously hands her and slipped it on to cover her modesty.

“God knows what Rhodey will say about this.”

“Rhodey!” Tony’s eyes widened, “Oh my God, is he alright?” as she spoke several light exploded as the LED bulbs overloaded with the power. Pepper and Helen yelp and duck as Vision stares at Tony, figuring out what Tony figures out a second later, “Umm. Sorry, I think I did that.”

Vision nodded, “I think it is best if we get started on the tests before something more important is affected by your new found abilities.”

 

*****

 

Gold and titanium now make up Tony’s bone structure. The organs are some kind of biochemical/synthetic structure and the skin is a polymer that is far more resilient than human skin. It had taken many tries for Helen to get a needle into Tony’s veins to draw blood, only it wasn’t blood that came from the veins, it was some kind of lubricant, warm, and sparkling somehow, full of extremis and nanites rather than blood cells. 

The brain is incredibly complex, part organic, part tech, and part something that defies scientific explanation. It becomes abundantly clear that Tony is Technopathic and can connect to the internet, something that She has to resist doing until her firewalls are built up since the onslaught of so much information sends her into a twelve hour coma! 

Friday monitors intent access from there, filtering what data Tony uploads to her mind. Apparently the data stream is visible in her irises when this happens, or so a shaken Pepper says. 

Tony has never been more grateful for Pepper’s strength than right now. She is managing things beautifully as Tony comes to terms with what has happened. Pepper has contacted the lawyers and is making a case for Tony to be legally named as his own daughter. They have the evidence and DNA to support this and it is likely to be granted when it goes to court. 

But being able to keep Tony Stark’s personal fortune is not Tony’s main focus. Learning to control the technopathy is a top priority, along with discovering just what this body is capable of. 

This form is far stronger than a human, capable of withstanding much more stress and abuse. Even a super-soldier would struggle in a hand to hand fight now. Something that eases remaining fear about Rogers and Barnes from Tony. 

Another surprise is that the suit is contained in the nanites in her blood stream, the armour seeping out and covering Tony’s body in a protective shell when she is testing her strength against Vision, the only one present who can offer a decent fight. It is a relief to know that it is still there, still a part of her, and Tony spends that afternoon expanding and retracting the gauntlets until she is proficient at summoning the suit at will. 

Clothing, hair, and make-up are the next focus. There is so much to chose from as a woman! Not just trousers and jeans and shorts, but skirts and dresses, short, mid-length, maxi, blouses, vests, t-shirts, corsets, off the shoulder, cold shoulder, halter neck. Hours and hours are spent with Pepper trying on different styles, learning her dress size, what suited her and what didn’t, how to accessorize, and how to walk in high heels without breaking an ankle. 

Make-up took a little more time. Tony was rather heavy handed, adding far too much eyeliner and mascara at first, and being too liberal with the eyeshadow and blusher. It took time and practice for Pepper to teach her to be a little less generous with the make-up, to soften the shades and blend them, to accentuate not overwhelm. But by the time Rhodey is awake and fit enough for visitors, Tony is well on the way to learning how to master this as high-heels. 

 

“Well Goddam but you are hot!” are Rhodey’s opening words upon Tony walking into the hospital room, “What did you do, upload a copy of swimsuit models to the cradle?” 

“Rhodey!” Tony protested, cheeks flushing, the downside of having pale skin was that blushes tended to show more. 

“Fuck me!” Rhodey whistled unrepentant, “Gimme a twirl so I can see that fine ass!” 

It works to break the ice. Rhodey is still shocked, still furious with Rogers, still hurt terribly, though Tony has an idea to help with that, and he is in part grieving over the loss of Tony Stark even though all the memories of their friendship are part of this new Tony. 

Rhodey hates that Tony is gone, that he died and suffered agony as he was reborn as this new being. Rhodey does not resent her in the least, it is the cause of her coming into being he hates, the man whose actions brought Tony to needing the cradle in an attempt to save his life, the man who has fled to escape the repercussions of his actions and had the audacity to send Tony a shitty letter and even shittier phone by way of apology. 

She’d enjoyed destroying the phone in a session with Vision after it had arrived, and had tossed the letter in the trash, cursing Rogers out as she did so. 

 

*****

 

“I’m thinking I need a new name.” She says to Vision, as she practises learning to use her technopathy in a safe environment, “Tony doesn’t really fit anymore.”

“No?” Vision asks, “Would not Antonia be alright?” 

“Yeah no,” She replies, “I don’t want to be a female version of Tony. I have the memories and experiences but I’m not Tony Stark, I am something new, someone new and I need a name of my own.” Vision nods in agreement, 

“Have you a name in mind?” 

“Yeah, but it’s a bit out there.”

 

*****

 

Between the evidence, Pepper’s testimony along with Helen and Vision’s, plus the lawyers efforts, the case goes in their favour and all of the now late Tony Stark’s private fortune and holdings are awarded to the new Stark heiress. 

Once all the legalities are straightened out, it is time to come out of hiding and face the world once more. 

It’s been twenty-three days since the rebirth, twenty-three days since Tony Stark died, Twenty-three days since she came into existence and now it is time that she be introduced to the world. 

Silently she stands behind Pepper as the death of Tony Stark is announced, the cause of said and the miracle that followed in the attempts to save him. Bracing herself she takes off her sunglasses and gives the media a blinding smile as Pepper announces her, 

“Miss Andromeda Maria Stark.”


End file.
